MUTINTA MULAYE writes
@SunZambian
THE Boma Local Court in Lusaka has given a couple a month to decide whether or not to go ahead with a divorce.
Angela Ngoma, who sued her husband Venasho Gomani for divorce, told senior local court magistrate Juliet Mwila the two had never lived in peace from the time they got married in 2012.
Ngoma said the major problem was that her husband was unable to manage his anger.
“Whenever I talk to any man, he behaves like I slept with that man. He beats me over any small issue and we fail to resolve anything. He takes all our issues outside the bedroom and the maid knows everything that happens in our bedroom because he goes to complain to her. I am more of a dependant than a wife,” she said.
“Before we got married, I found him with eight children who are all living with us. He even brought in more people, but does not want any of my relatives in the house,” Ngoma said.
She said Gomani always made her look bad and that she had just been pretending to outsiders that all was well.
When he gets upset he confiscates my phone or car keys and sometimes even takes me to the police.
Ngoma said one time after a misunderstanding, her husband went and called the police who came to their house with guns.
She said the police apprehended her and told her they had received reports that she was inciting violence in the house.
“He one time gave me money to go to China. When we fought, he confiscated that money. One time he beat me and dislocated a bone in my leg.
“I went to my parents’ house in Kitwe and in the morning the police came to arrest me and told me I had stolen money and the car. I was brought to Lusaka and locked up as a thief,” she said.
Gomani responded that their problems started right from the beginning because his wife had many boyfriends.
He said he even had to see a priest before he married her.
“I found out that she was involved in exchanging sex for money with married men. In fact a few days before the wedding she accidentally sent me a text message intended for her boyfriend, which said ‘baby, you can come now, he has gone but I’m having my pees’. Until now she has never apologised,” Gomani said.
He told the court that even when they got married, Ngoma continued the relationship with her boyfriend, who was a married man.
“I followed that man to Kitwe and confronted him and my wife went to harass him for finding another side chick.
“She posted her number on Facebook to advertise herself and her behaviour of many boyfriends continued,” Gomani said.
He said Ngoma did not believe in one man but multiple men as her sexual partners.
“She even hates all the bana cimbusas [traditional marriage counsellors] and thinks I bribed them to be talking to her. I even found her drinking wine with one of my parish priests,” Gomani said.
The court did not grant the divorce but adjourned the case to a later date to give the couple more time to sort out their differences.
